The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Ilex crenata and will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, ‘Annys5’. ‘Annys5’ is a new cultivar of Japanese holly grown for use as a landscape plant.
The new Ilex resulted from a breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Zundert, The Netherlands. The Inventor made crosses between unnamed and unpatented proprietary plants of Ilex crenata in the Inventor's breeding program as both the female parent and male parent. The exact characteristics of the parents are unknown as seeds where pooled and sown from numerous crosses over different years. ‘Annys5’ was selected as a single unique plant in 2003 from the resulting seedlings of the above crosses.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar was first accomplished by the Inventor using semi-hardwood stem cuttings in 2003 in Zundert, The Netherlands. Asexual propagation by semi-hardwood stem cuttings has determined that the characteristics of the new cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.